The PWDO Story So Far

For those who are wondering who we are, how we started, what we’ve done so far, and how you can be a part of the organization, read on!

The Philippine Web Designers Organization is a grassroots, volunteer-run, non-profit organization that helps develop the local community by championing professionalism & excellence in crafting interfaces for the Web.

To accomplish this, we volunteer our time & talents to organize conferences, meet-ups, hackathons, and workshops to sharpen the skills of Filipino web designers & developers, from students to professionals.

PWDO started in September 2008 because we wanted to have a web design conference in the country. Conversations on social media followed after the first WordCamp Philippines, and we decided to meet.

The 1st MiniFFC meet-up

October 30, 2008 — Exist Techbar, Pasig

On October 30, 2008, we held the first web designer meet-up called MiniFFC— short for Mini <form> function() & .class, the name we had conceived for the conference.

Why FFC?

In their stylized versions, <form> function() & .class refers to the three main components of a website — HTML, JavaScript, & CSS. As words, they allude to concepts of web design — the intertwining of form & function.

The original FFC logo by Marco Palinar & Rico Sta. Cruz debuted in the first MiniFFC meetup.

Over fifty people from the web design community came together in Ortigas and listened to talks on web accessibility, design, web standards, interaction design, and user interface design.

Planning for FFC continued as the group was joined by Jojo Esposa Jr., Marie dela Torre, JP dela Torre, Helga Weber, Alfredo Palconit Jr., Jonel Uy, Aja Lapus, & Karissa Villa. By March 2009 we registered with the SEC as a non-stock, non-profit corporation.

The 1st Form Function & Class conference

July 10, 2009 — Asian Institute of Management, Makati

On July 10, 2009, we launched the first <form> function & .class conference at the Asian Institute of Management, Makati.

That day, we finally accomplished what we set out to do: organize a Philippine web design conference. We made the best out of our modest resources and connections to create this grassroots event for web designers, by web designers, and we’ve been iterating & improving on FFC ever since.

FFC 2011 at the Asian Institute of Management, Makati. Illustration by Kindred Pasaña.

2011

We skipped 2010, but returned in 2011 with a new conference format: FFC spanned a whole weekend of 1-hour plenary sessions by John Leyson, Jason Torres, Andrei Gonzales, & Brian Tenorio; and 3-hour workshops by Dan Matutina, Rico Sta. Cruz, JP de Guzman, & Allan Caeg.

2014

As FFC turned 5 in 2014, we pushed for a super-special, superhero-inspired conference by inviting the top names in the industry from all around the world: Jina Bolton, Holger Bartel, Sacha Greif, Silas Reyes, Eric Clark Su, & John Allsopp.

FFC 6 at the Hive Hotel, Quezon City.

2015

FFC6 in 2015 focused on the evils of design, with the revolution led by: Brad Frost, Rachel Nabors, Angela Chua, Angela Obias, & James Cabrera. A Masterclass on Responsive Design by Brad Frost followed the next day, and in a week, a Web Animation Workshop by Rachel Nabors.

Form Function & Class 5 conference class picture.

Five years of FFC conference shirts, reflecting different themes per year.

Junior FFC

Rails for Designers

Collaborating with the Philippine Ruby Users Group & DevCon Philippines, we held a one-day workshop called Rails for Designers.

Caritakathon

We created a pro-bono website-building hackathon for non-profits called Caritakathon. As a way of giving back to the community, we invited teams of designers & developers to build sites for deserving organizations within 48 hours. We also held pre-event bootcamps to offer tips and brief the teams & organizations.

What’s next?

This year, we’re opening committee membership to the public, so for more information please visit pwdo.org/join.